A list of the 100 Most Important Professionals

Many of us reach a point in time when we begin to believe we are indispensable to our organisations. Some of us reach that point of realisation early on, some of us later on and some of us do not get there ever. Well, the truth is that no one is ever indispensable. But there is a need to project a good number of professionals as inspirational for a younger generation of practitioners. That is why we embarked on the 100 MIP project.

We have had mostly positive reactions to the effort. We are aware that there could have been some people who felt they should have been in the list, we are also aware that some people feel there could have been a few who did not have to be in the list. Then there are those in the list who may have felt that their ranking is not what it says in the print version. But a beginning had to be made and this column highlights some facts and figures so that we have some interesting trivia to reflect on.

The oldest person in the list is 72 years old and she is the only person in the list who is a septuagenarian. We unanimously chose her to be on top of the list.

The youngest is 30 and has almost single-handedly built a formidable reputation for her boss and organisation.

There were more men in the list because for every founder we added into the list we also brought in the co-founder. So, we have eight pairs of men and three spouses who are co-founders in this list.

There were no co-founders who were only women. But there are three women founders in the list.

We have an equal number, 50 each – in PR consulting and in-house.

NCR has 54 professionals, followed by Mumbai at 35, Bangalore at eight and one each from Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

In the Top 25 we have 15 men and 10 women out of which six women and three men are from corporate communications. That makes it four women and 12 men from PR consulting.

There was only one individual who neither belongs to a PR firm nor to a corporate communications department.

Of the 86 organisations represented almost 50 are India headquartered, including 20 PR firms and 30 corporates.

Unicorns such as Flipkart. Paytm, Ola, Hike and Times Internet find mention.

Four married couples feature in the list. And one pair of first cousins are also in the list.

18 independent PR firms of varying sizes find a place in the list

Interestingly, brands such as Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Patanjali, Snapdeal, Zomato are not in the list.

48 professionals in the list have not spoken at PRAXIS. 52 have including few at the sixth edition.

74 people in the list have never sponsored any programme of The PRomise Foundation. Almost six out of 30 people who have been sponsors in the past or in the present do not feature in the list including Eikona, News Voir, Business Wire, APCO Worldwide among others.